California Dreamin’

Two days of our visit to Oregon were spent on a family camping trip in northern California near Mount Shasta, the towering mountain peak at the southern end of the Cascade Range. We camped at a resort on Lake Siskiyou, which is a reservoir formed by Box Canyon Dam on the Sacramento River.

The resort had enough beach activities to entertain the 4 teenage girls we had with us. The surrounding forests and mountains kept the adults entertained with hiking and biking activities.

The first day was a strenuous bike ride on Castle Lake Road, a 7-mile straight up climb from the 3200-foot elevation of Lake Siskiyou to the 5200-foot elevation of Castle Lake. That’s a bit more hill climbing than I’m used to doing on a bike, but with encouragement from my super athlete daughter, I made it to the top. Castle Lake is a small alpine lake, quite scenic and a nice reward for the uphill pedal.

The second day we wanted to check out the 7.5-mile trail that goes all the way around Lake Siskiyou. Lee and I plodded along on foot and finished in time to be back at the car for lunch and checkout time at the campground. Meanwhile, Ruth zipped around twice on her mountain bike, meeting up with us on the trail to give a report of the sights ahead before heading back to camp and helping the girls finish the packing. Everyone made it safely back to Medford in the early afternoon, agreeing that Lake Siskiyou camping was a positive experience that we can look forward to doing again on a future visit to Oregon.Beach at Lake Siskiyou Resort.